Book Review: Keep Marching: How Every Woman Can Take Action and Change Our World by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

If you’re looking for concrete ideas about everyday activism, read Keep Marching: How Every Woman Can Take Action and Change Our World by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner. The author breaks down today’s most critical human rights issues, and provides an action plan.

Keep Marching is full of details, including the results of studies and true stories. Rowe-Finkbeiner delicately balances the statistics with reality, getting her readers all fired up. Then she lays out the details of how to take that information and use it for change.

For example, pick the topic area that matters most to you: Our Money, Our Bodies, or Our Communites. Next delve deeper into one topic, let’s say Our Bodies. In that section, Rowe-Finkbeiner covers health care, Medicaid, reproductive rights, domestic violence, and maternal mortality within this section.

Layered in between the topics are the action steps. One section talks about how to reach out to your legislators. Not just how to find their number, but how best to make that phone call. She explains what to expect, and the best way to get your message across. In another, Rowe-Finkbeiner explains how to make the most of a town hall or community forum. What if you’ve done all that and want to get more involved? Well, there’s a chapter on running for office or supporting a woman who already is running.

My conclusions:

Political action is much more than clicking “like” on Facebook memes. But it doesn’t have to be hard, or a full-time job. More women than ever are banding together, around dining room tables and board rooms. They are making change by doing any small things, consistently, and over long periods of time. Women aren’t letting up on the pressure.

Keep Marching reminded me of all the fire I felt in November 2016. It inspired me to do more, and to connect with like-minded friends and organizations. It helped me feel the power women truly have in the world today.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner’s writing style takes heavily researched topics and makes them approachable. The footnoted content is transformed from dry statistics with many stories of women’s own experiences. Keep Marching isn’t preachy. Instead, after reading it I’m excited to do more to impact my world.

Although I received this book as a digital advanced reader’s copy, I will definitely buy a copy of the finished product. According to the author, “100 percent of the proceeds of this book go to MomsRising to help provide the fuel to keep us all marching.” There’s a reason to purchase copies for friends too!

Acknowledgements:

Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and Hachette Books for the opportunity to read this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Purchase My Book

I will definitely recommend Kick Pain in the Kitchen to my patients: Those who are looking to avoid pharmaceutical treatment and those who want to combine western medicine with alternative therapies.Jane A. SwartzARNP, MSN, Rheumatology Nurse Practitioner